Are You Ready? The LDS Homeschool Conference is only a few days away! August 21, 22, 2015

This email is your registration to the LDS Homeschool Conference! Because you received this email your name is on the register. You will pick up your name tag at registration on Friday morning, which serves as your ticket into the classes.

What you can do to prepare:One thing that sets up apart from other conferences is our yearly theme, this years theme is:

"If you understand the great plan of happiness and follow it, what goes on in the world will not determine your happiness.” — Boyd K. Packer

If you haven’t already, we invite you to read or listen to President Boyd K. Packer’s talk called "The Great Plan of Happiness". He asked us all "to prepare a brief synopsis or overview of the plan of happiness—the plan of salvation. Design it as a framework on which your students can organize the truths you will share with them." We invite all LDS Homeschoolers everywhere to do the same! Read more here.

What you can expect:* Great Venue. The classrooms are close together, the halls are wide and the vendor hall is close and it is all on one level. South Towne Expo Center is centralized, easy to find, and has free parking.

* Great and amazing Presentersranging from parenting skills and traveling with your family to the nuts and bolts of homeschooling and rejuvenating your soul. Our presenters are all focusing on the Plan of Happiness and how the knowledge of it brings us more happiness in our lives. See the line up here.

* The Vendor Hall is exactly that, a hallway filled with great educational choices. There will also be scheduled times for the vendors to present their product or service on a vendor stage. See the sponsors and vendors here.

* Time to visit with friends and meet new people. There is scheduled time to visit the vendors and with each other. We want you to have a positive experience and to be able to receive the inspiration you need for your family whether it comes from a speaker, workshop, vendor or visiting with a stranger.

* Uplifting Music will be played during the conference.

* Great Youth Conference with many new, exciting and learning games. Plus great presenters, simulations, activities, and more games. The flag game is already the talk of the town with the youth committee. We are all excited about it. See more about the youth conference, art display and dance here.

What to bring:* A jacket, as the rooms may get cool. Layers work well.

* Pencil and paper to take notes and other information

Standards:DressWe follow the church standards of dressing modestly. No tank tops, low cut shirts or short shorts. Follow the rule of thumb: Cover your shoulders, chest, midriff and knees and everything in between.

ChildrenOur conference and classes are designed for 12 years old and older. We ask that we not bring younger children or babies as we are recording the classes, please be considerate and take your baby out if he is making noises.

Who else do you want to see there?There is always someone you can think of that you would like to see at the conference or someone you’d like to visit with. Below is a picture you can post on your wall, your friends wall, or email them and invite them to join you. Be sure to add the link, http://www.centerpointconferences.com/register.html, to your picture.

Joyce Kinmont share the events that led up to the first LDS Homeschool Conference. She talks about the experiences around the beginning of the first conference. She and Jack Monnett visit together about what it was like during beginning of of the LDS Homeschool Movement.

We wanted honor Reed Benson as one of our LDS Homeschool Pioneers. I called up his home and spoke with his wife May. He is not able to visit, he has been bed ridden for about two years now. I told her our intentions of honoring him and she said, "Well, he deserves it." I asked her about his feelings on the LDS Homeschool Movement and she, "He loves the homeschoolers and most of our children have chosen to homeschool." Joyce Kinmont remembered, "He called the homeschool movement a "Family Building Movement.""I told May that we would make a video about him with those that remembered him. She was pleased and asked for a copy when we finished and she sent her love and "Reed's love too."

The following biography of Reed Benson was taken from the Moore Foundation when he received the Elijah Award:

Dr. Reed A. Benson is a professor in the Ancient Scripture Department at Brigham Young University and teaches a thousand students a semester. He has written for a national news magazine, lectured widely, and interviewed with numerous TV and print outlets. A former Air Force Chaplain during the Korean War, he was the President of the Kentucky, Louisville Mission, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He served as Branch President in Oxford, England and in the Israel District Presidency. The eldest son of President and Mrs. Ezra Taft Benson, he is the father of nine children and grandfather to twenty-four.

Dr. Benson was the author of the first dissertation in the nation on home education, which is still in print. He collaborated with John Holt, Dr. Raymond Moore, Dr. Larry Arnoldson, and other early pioneers of modern alternative education, consistently lending his influence to support home education during its critical embryonic years in the western United States. He helped develop some of the modern conventions of the home education movement, including the very notion of state home-education conventions and "modern" home-education outreach. [You can find his whole dissertation here.]

May Hinckley Benson was honored as Homeschooling Mother of the Year in 2000. She completed studies at the University of Utah, University of Maryland, and Cornell. With a great display of courage, she successfully home-educated her nine adopted children for fifteen years during the early days of the modern home-education movement. She is a popular speaker and a pioneer in the home education movement who has consistently lent her voice of experience and support. Both Reed and May are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

The Quaqua Society is both proud and grateful to honor the Bensons for their profound contribution to the home-education community. They have been instrumental in helping Utah to have, at least to this point, one of the most progressive environments for home education to be found anywhere in the nation. Their tireless and uncompensated service has touched thousands of lives. They will never be forgotten.

Biographical sketches for the Bensons were drawn from http://www.schoolofabraham.com/speakers.htm.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Find ideas on how to create meaningful and engaging learning activities that encourage active participation. This will help you know how best to create an environment where your family can learn, and become converted to, the gospel. www.lds.org

L.I.F.E. School Life Integrated Family Education, an LDS Based Curriculum for the Home and Classroom. www.lifeschoolk12.org

Joseph Smith Foundation Joseph Smith Foundation is an organization focused on supporting and contributing to projects founded in the words of Jesus Christ. Our motto is “Vision in Light of the Restoration”. www.josephsmithfoundation.net

Keystone Education A Christ centered, LDS, family approach to learning. Home of Theo, the Theology Tree. Join Faith and Obee on their adventure to learn the Key Patterns of Learning so they can locate the lost branches and return them to Theo to be grafted back into their original source. Along the way you'll learn how to create a personalize memorandum (notebook), the branches of each of the eight core subjects, and how to find doctrine, principle and symbols and create your own applications. "Nurture the roots and the leaves will take care of themselves." www.KeystoneEd.com

Hold to the Rod LDS Homeschool Curriculum units revolve around the gospel stories that children enjoy so much. Academic subjects are taught as they relate to these scripture stories, leading to a greater understanding of the Word of God n a positive learning environment. www.holdtotherod.com

Ideal Curriculum Ideal Curriculum provides reading readiness and early reading curriculum. Based on the five areas of reading development, our curriculum helps children learn to read in an easy, natural way. The curriculum is thorough and works on each skill to mastery level so that children do not end up with gaps in their learning. All of our products are based on music and games so they are engaging and fun for children. Visit us at www.idealcurriculum.com.

The Good & The BeautifulThe Good & the Beautiful language arts and literature curriculum is a free resource designed for home school families or for parents wanting to supplement their children’s educations. The courses foster a true love of learning while teaching strong and advanced academics. Jenny Phillips Curriculum

Discover the Scriptureshelp kids (and their families) discover and learn from the great heroes of the scriptures. Our workbooks help children explore stories and doctrine from the Book of Mormon, Old Testament, New Testament, and LDS Church History. LDS homeschool families and others wanting to help their children discover the scriptures will love our products. Discover the ScripturesEPIC Learning AdventuresAre you ready to create an extraordinary, inspiring, personalized education for your children, that ignites passionate learning and heroic living? A comprehensive, step-by-step, guide to create the most powerful kind of learning - one that engages heart and mind, and prepares students to fulfill their rendezvous with destiny. Courageous BeingsPolar Star StudiesHome of the real mom series Polar Star StudiesMormon Little BooksThe Book of Mormon Little Books series currently has thirty-two books divided into six levels, beginning with Level A for beginning readers and gradually increasing in difficulty to Level F. Mormon Little Books

LDS Homeschool Organizations

LDS Education AssociationThe LDSEA works to support LDS education by creating a community which shares ideas and resources with all members of the LDS Church who are involved in teaching or sharing the Gospel - whether in the home, the Church classroom, or in the world. www.ldsea.org

LDS Home Educator Association A support organization for those schooling around the Mormon faith. It sponsors a bookstore, newsletter and how-to packets.www.ldshea.com

Latter-day Saint Home EducatorsSupporting, Strengthening and Inspiring Home Educators. www.ldshe.org